Blues Under the Bridge • 2007


A KRCC Concert: Blues, Brews & BBQ ------------ June 2nd, 2007 6pm - Midnite ----------- Rain or Shine Bring a Chair and Blanket! (No pets, please) ----------- Tickets: $20 general $15 KRCC Members (at KRCC) $25 everyone, day of show On Saturday, June 2nd, 2007, KRCC and Independent Records and Video brought you "Blues Under The Bridge," featuring local artist John Alex Mason and The Jake Loggins Band, and headliners The Soul of John Black and hill country bluesman Robert Belfour. KRCC's Jeff Bieri caught up with Belfour at his home in Tennessee, where he was watering his flower garden. [LISTEN] The Jake Loggins Band "It's not that Jake Loggins is an incredible blues guitarist, or that his vocal delivery bubbles with passion and soul- it's that you would never peg Loggins as a blues musician if you saw him on the street. Built like a string bean, and still sporting a bit of a baby face, the young prodigy makes eyes pop when he takes the stage with commanding lungs and lightening fast fingers. Pair him with his excellent band and you've got a great night of blues music."... Colorado Springs Gazette, GO! Section Gazette Slice "Jake Loggins never has rehearsed in his life. The local blues guitarist never has set foot in a studio. He writes music on the fly, on stage, wherever he might be performing. Yet Loggins, 22, doesn't find the need to hold down a day job. He makes his living solely from singing and playing music. Part of his success, he claims, comes from the efforts of the Pikes Peak Blues Community, a nonprofit organization that works to cultivate a love for music in area neighborhoods. The PPBC sends musicians to local schools to teach the history of blues music. It sends poets to schools to teach music lyrics, and it hosts lyric-writing workshops and contests for those students. Last November, the winning contestant had his lyrics set to music and performed by Loggins and his band at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs." The Slice [WEBSITE] 2007 Schedule 6pm - Gates open 6:30-7:30pm John-Alex Mason 8pm-9pm The Jake Loggins Band 9:30-10:30pm Robert Belfour 11pm-Midnight The Soul of John Black 2007 Sponsors Independent Records and Video KRCC-FM / Colorado College Accent Photo Imaging Axxis Audio The Blue Star Bristol Brewing Company The Colorado Springs Independent Colorado Springs Young Professionals The Leechpit The Liberal Store Newspeakblog.com Murphy Constructors Pikes Peak Arts Council Pikes Peak Blues Community Rainy Days Smokebrush FUNdation for the Arts Smokemuse 2007 Menu Pulled Pork with choice of James Bubba Davis' BUB Sauce White Bread Pickles Beans Bagged chips Cookies, brownies & moon pies Coca-Cola Products and Bottled water Beer provided by Bristol Brewery 2007 Tickets Tickets (on sale 5/14/2007): $20 for the general public, $15 for KRCC Members, available only at the station: 912 North Weber Street, 719-473-4801 or 800-748-2727 $25 for everyone, day of show Save $5 per ticket by grabbing a discount coupon at all Independent Records & Video locations and purchasing your tickets at KRCC (one ticket per coupon, so grab a few). Full price tickets also available at www.ticketweb.com (5/14/07). Directions & Parking With the exception of folks with disabilities, no cars will be permitted under the bridge. The Antlers Parking Garage will provide free parking for the event. Please park at the Antlers, walk west on Colorado Avenue and take the stairs under the bridge. The Antlers Garage has entrances on Pikes Peak, next to Penrose Library, and on Colorado Avenue, just west of Cascade Avenue. [GOOGLE MAP] 2007 PerformERS Robert Belfour Robert 'Wolfman' Belfour is a little-known but very powerful blues guitarist and singer based in Memphis, Tennessee. Born to sharecropper parents on a farm in Holly Springs, Mississippi, he began playing guitar in the late '40s after the death of his father who left the instrument to him. He learned by emulating the sounds of such greats as John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and his idol, Howlin Wolf, as they were being broadcast on his mother's battery-operated radio. He was also influenced to some extent by his neighbor, Junior Kimbrough. Belfour's style is deeply-rooted in the sounds of his North Mississippi birthplace. It is a highly rhythmic and riff-oriented type of playing that can also be heard in the work of other players from the region, like Jessie Mae Hemphill, R.L. Burnside, and the late Fred Mcdowell. [WIKI] The Soul of John Black Former Fishbone member finds a whole new brand of soul in the Soul of John Black, the amazing creation of former Fishbone multi-instrumentalist John Bigham begins with a broad conception of soul. Instead of standard R&B loops, Bigham uses expansive, far-reaching melodies and rockish backing to tell his stories -- which include several odes to beautiful women, a breakup song about being "trapped inside the burning wreckage of your status symbol" and, on the Stevie Wonder-ish "The Bridge," the challenge of "I tried to build a bridge over my pain." Where conventional soul-music wisdom says the beats must kill, Bigham lays down a tense, minimal rhythm and then concentrates on the rest of the framework: elaborate, strummed acoustic guitars that give way to groaning, distortion-heavy electrics; and loose gospel harmonies that inspire the dazzling ad-libbed vocal outbursts found on "Scandalous (No. 9)," the tormented "Honey" and the album's aptly named highlight, the smoldering, Afrobeat-tinged "Supa Killa." [WEBSITE] John-Alex Mason My slide guitar playing is inspired by the recordings of Son House, Fred McDowell, Robert Johnson, Charley Patton and Bukka White (to name a few) and my singing is inspired by Viola Marigna, my African-American nanny, my parents housekeeper and the woman I consider to be my godmother. I am not an imitator. That is not my aspiration. These are the people who have moved me to have hope in my life. I aspire only to move others as these tremendous people have moved me. Starting out I played bars a lot; in ski towns, in trendy places where manufacturing used to thrive and places where acoustic music was a distraction from the 70 inch plasma screens. Richard Johnston showed me how to play drums with my feet over a weekend of busking on Beale Street in Memphis. I love getting people dancing and though I can crank on the resonator guitar, the footdrums and electric guitars sure bring out the boogie. Suddenly the TVs were the distraction. I tend to surprise people. That has been my experience anyhow. I show up to play and I am younger than I look in my photos and before you know it with audience in tow, two or three or four good hours of singing and playing have whirled by. It's like, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, boarding a bus that won't bar no race, that won't laugh at your looks, your voice or your face and by any number of bets in the book will be rolling long after the bubble gum craze. [WEBSITE]
Blues Under the Bridge 2008 • KRCC-FM • More info: 719-473-4801 / 800-748-2727 • music@krcc.org

A KRCC Concert:

Blues, Brews & BBQ
------------
June 2nd, 2007
6pm - Midnite
-----------
Rain or Shine
Bring a Chair and Blanket!
(No pets, please)
-----------
Tickets:
$20 general
$15 KRCC Members (at KRCC)
$25 everyone, day of show

On Saturday, June 2nd, 2007, KRCC and Independent Records and Video brought you "Blues Under The Bridge," featuring local artist John Alex Mason and The Jake Loggins Band, and headliners The Soul of John Black and hill country bluesman Robert Belfour.

KRCC's Jeff Bieri caught up with Belfour at his home in Tennessee, where he was watering his flower garden. [LISTEN]

The Jake Loggins Band

"It's not that Jake Loggins is an incredible blues guitarist, or that his vocal delivery bubbles with passion and soul- it's that you would never peg Loggins as a blues musician if you saw him on the street. Built like a string bean, and still sporting a bit of a baby face, the young prodigy makes eyes pop when he takes the stage with commanding lungs and lightening fast fingers. Pair him with his excellent band and you've got a great night of blues music."... Colorado Springs Gazette, GO! Section

Gazette Slice

"Jake Loggins never has rehearsed in his life. The local blues guitarist never has set foot in a studio.

He writes music on the fly, on stage, wherever he might be performing. Yet Loggins, 22, doesn't find the need to hold down a day job. He makes his living solely from singing and playing music. Part of his success, he claims, comes from the efforts of the Pikes Peak Blues Community, a nonprofit organization that works to cultivate a love for music in area neighborhoods. The PPBC sends musicians to local schools to teach the history of blues music. It sends poets to schools to teach music lyrics, and it hosts lyric-writing workshops and contests for those students. Last November, the winning contestant had his lyrics set to music and performed by Loggins and his band at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs." The Slice

[WEBSITE]

2007 Schedule

6pm - Gates open
6:30-7:30pm John-Alex Mason
8pm-9pm The Jake Loggins Band
9:30-10:30pm Robert Belfour
11pm-Midnight The Soul of John Black

2007 Menu

Pulled Pork with choice of James Bubba Davis' BUB Sauce
White Bread
Pickles
Beans
Bagged chips
Cookies, brownies & moon pies
Coca-Cola Products and
Bottled water

Beer provided by
Bristol Brewery

2007 Tickets

Tickets (on sale 5/14/2007):
$20 for the general public,
$15 for KRCC Members,
available only at the station:
912 North Weber Street,
719-473-4801 or 800-748-2727
$25 for everyone, day of show

Save $5 per ticket by grabbing a discount coupon at all Independent Records & Video locations and purchasing your tickets at KRCC (one ticket per coupon, so grab a few).

Full price tickets also available at www.ticketweb.com (5/14/07).

Directions & Parking

With the exception of folks with disabilities, no cars will be permitted under the bridge. The Antlers Parking Garage will provide free parking for the event. Please park at the Antlers, walk west on Colorado Avenue and take the stairs under the bridge. The Antlers Garage has entrances on Pikes Peak, next to Penrose Library, and on Colorado Avenue, just west of Cascade Avenue. [GOOGLE MAP]

2007 PerformERS

Robert Belfour

Robert 'Wolfman' Belfour is a little-known but very powerful blues guitarist and singer based in Memphis, Tennessee. Born to sharecropper parents on a farm in Holly Springs, Mississippi, he began playing guitar in the late '40s after the death of his father who left the instrument to him.

He learned by emulating the sounds of such greats as John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and his idol, Howlin Wolf, as they were being broadcast on his mother's battery-operated radio. He was also influenced to some extent by his neighbor, Junior Kimbrough.

Belfour's style is deeply-rooted in the sounds of his North Mississippi birthplace. It is a highly rhythmic and riff-oriented type of playing that can also be heard in the work of other players from the region, like Jessie Mae Hemphill, R.L. Burnside, and the late Fred Mcdowell.

[WIKI]

The Soul of John Black

Former Fishbone member finds a whole new brand of soul in the Soul of John Black, the amazing creation of former Fishbone multi-instrumentalist John Bigham begins with a broad conception of soul.

Instead of standard R&B loops, Bigham uses expansive, far-reaching melodies and rockish backing to tell his stories -- which include several odes to beautiful women, a breakup song about being "trapped inside the burning wreckage of your status symbol" and, on the Stevie Wonder-ish "The Bridge," the challenge of "I tried to build a bridge over my pain."

Where conventional soul-music wisdom says the beats must kill, Bigham lays down a tense, minimal rhythm and then concentrates on the rest of the framework: elaborate, strummed acoustic guitars that give way to groaning, distortion-heavy electrics; and loose gospel harmonies that inspire the dazzling ad-libbed vocal outbursts found on "Scandalous (No. 9)," the tormented "Honey" and the album's aptly named highlight, the smoldering, Afrobeat-tinged "Supa Killa."

[WEBSITE]

John-Alex Mason

My slide guitar playing is inspired by the recordings of Son House, Fred McDowell, Robert Johnson, Charley Patton and Bukka White (to name a few) and my singing is inspired by Viola Marigna, my African-American nanny, my parents housekeeper and the woman I consider to be my godmother. I am not an imitator. That is not my aspiration. These are the people who have moved me to have hope in my life. I aspire only to move others as these tremendous people have moved me.

Starting out I played bars a lot; in ski towns, in trendy places where manufacturing used to thrive and places where acoustic music was a distraction from the 70 inch plasma screens. Richard Johnston showed me how to play drums with my feet over a weekend of busking on Beale Street in Memphis. I love getting people dancing and though I can crank on the resonator guitar, the footdrums and electric guitars sure bring out the boogie. Suddenly the TVs were the distraction.

I tend to surprise people. That has been my experience anyhow. I show up to play and I am younger than I look in my photos and before you know it with audience in tow, two or three or four good hours of singing and playing have whirled by. It's like, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, boarding a bus that won't bar no race, that won't laugh at your looks, your voice or your face and by any number of bets in the book will be rolling long after the bubble gum craze.

[WEBSITE]